I’m sure I walked more than a mile during the first few weeks of January, but since I didn’t log any fitness, it wasn’t fair to count more than I could be sure of. Then, despite my goal to log 30 miles by walking 5 miles a day in the last 6 days of the month to “average” a mile a day for the month, I found everything to do yesterday except get on the treadmill.
Today, I put off the treadmill all. day.
Until now.
And let me tell you, I did NOT want to put on my walking shoes. I did NOT want to get on this treadmill. I would rather be sitting in the sauna RIGHT NOW. But I made a commitment to God to be a good steward of the body He has blessed me with. I would rather walk outside at leisurely pace on the flat ground than 3mph at a 4% incline, but I made commitment to myself to average at least a mile a day and if I’m gonna do it, I’m gonna increase my heart rate and SWEAT. I put my goal out there on the internet because accountability makes me stronger.
So I’m faced with a decision. How many miles am I going to walk today, tomorrow and Tuesday?
We’ll find out in three days, but I’ll tell you this, the decision is NOT going to be influenced by how tired I am. I’m still on the treadmill as I type this and so far, I’ve walked 4.25 miles. I’m tired, but I’m not hurting, so I’m not quitting.
It’s been a while since I updated my fitness log. Tomorrow marks EIGHT weeks since my partial MCL tear and ACL strain! Recommended healing for my injury was 6 to 8 weeks!
YEAH! I’m HEALED!(yes. this is how I think)
First day back to the incline treadmill walking (at an incline of 4 and a speed of 3 mph). I think I’ll take it slow and only walk a mile or two. Unless I decide to walk 5 miles a day till the end of the month to get to an average of a mile a day for the entire month.(yes. this is how I think.)
On another note, I was doing my two minute forearm plank a few weeks ago and FirstHusband said, “Ya know, I’m kind of surprised you’re still satisfied with a two minute plank. That’s not like you.”
seriously? He had to plant that thought in my freakishly self-competitive head?
So, I’m up to two minutes, ten seconds. The new goal is to be able to do a three minute plank by the end of the year.
(the premise is that children who are capable of delayed gratification are more “successful” than children who can’t delay gratification. The test? Give a kid a marshmallow and tell them they can eat it – BUT if they can wait 10-15 minutes, they can have TWO marshmallows. Some kids make it. Some kids don’t. Some kids find a way to eat the INSIDE of a marshmallow and make it look like they didn’t eat it. That would be the little girl with the pink headband. The kid vs. marshmallow test video begins around the 3 minute mark.)
Today, an hour ago:
FirstHusband went to our doc for his annual check-up this morning. Me: “Did you ask him about my knee?” FirstHubs: “uh, YEAH. I said, ‘Julie wants to go back to yoga and I said she had to wait until you cleared her.'” Doc: “no. No. (pause) NO!” well. that’s irritating. Now FirstHubs has ammo. and an ally.
December 1 @ 11:19am (still don’t understand how I didn’t know anything was wrong at this point)
Done: 1 HIIT mile and 1 yoga class.
But I’m still in my workout clothes…still wearing shoes. If I can just stop myself from taking off my shoes, there’s the possibility of another mile or two.
3:32pm (and so it begins)
right knee. ice. heat. ice. heat. ice. heat. anti-inflammatories. don’t know if I twisted it in yoga or stressed it jogging. I didn’t move it for an hour this afternoon and it started to stiffen up. Gotta MOVE it! FavoriteHusband…will you please fix my bike?
10:54pm FirstHusband: “Sit down. I don’t want you walking around. You’re limping.” Me: “I’m not limping. I’m just walking without bending my knee.” FirstHusband: “How is that different from limping?” Me: “It doesn’t hurt to walk if I don’t bend my knee.” FirstHusband: “Have you ever seen Chester on Gunsmoke?” Me: “Yeh. so?” FirstHusband: “If you don’t sit down I’m going to start calling you Chester.”
December 11
After 8 days of rest, ice, anti-inflamatories and wearing a compression knee brace, walked three miles (wearing the knee brace).
December 12 @ 11:39am
Had the doctor look at my knee today when I took PinkGirl (her brother gave her strep). Turns out, I have a partially torn medial collateral ligament and a strained anterior cruciate ligament. Switching from Aleve to the cortisone prescription he gave me and continuing with ice and a brace. It’s MUCH better than when I hurt it 10 days ago. No problem during or after the 3 miles I walked yesterday. I just can’t fully straighten my leg or bend it all the way (strained ACL). Also can’t do fire log pose (torn MCL) or cross my right leg over my left. Yet.
1:21pm
Just picked up my prescription for my knee. Dang. That’s a LOT of cortisone. 6 pills today, 5 tomorrow, 4 on Wednesday, 3, 2, and finally 1 on Saturday. Supposedly, it will make me more susceptible to infection. and StrepThroatGirl is watching TV in my bed. On the bright side, my arthritis and psoriasis symptoms should be non-existent this week.
December 13 @ 10:37am
6 cortisone pills down, 15 more to go. My knee feels SO much better. I know that just means the inflammation is down, not that the ligaments are healed. Wearing a brace today to prevent myself from moving in a way that, while doesn’t cause pain, might be counter-productive to healing. Back to walking the last two days to keep my knee from stiffening up. So far, so good.
8:12pm
I’m going for a walk. Because I can – and because last week, I couldn’t.
9:38pm
Walked 2.5 miles. I really, really hate it when I end on a half mile.
December 14 @ 9:29pm
Made it! Walked 3 Miles with NO knee pain! PRAISE GOD!!!! HE IS SO GOOD! I have two more days of cortisone pills. If the pain and inflammation come back, I have to go for an MRI. Praying there’s been some significant healing this week and I can start strengthening my knee. Just read yesterday that torn MCL recovery can take 6 to 8 weeks!!! eek!
December 15 @ 12:37pm – next. slowly. but next.
Cycling is also part of my plan! My sweet husband pulled my bike out of the shed, removed the baby seat (I know, PinkGirl is ELEVEN), put a new seat on it for me and bought me two new tubes and tires. Thankful I’m already back to walking – with a knee brace.
December 16 @ 6:26pm
do. hard. things.
“Let perseverance finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
James 1:4
December 18 @ 2:41pm
Wii Fit suggests my ideal body weight is 129 pounds?! My 16 year old son weighs 134 lbs. I don’t think so.
6:22pm
Walked a 3 mile neighborhood route with FirstHusband. First day off cortisone pills. Knee still feels good. SO thankful!
1 cup skim milk (90 calories)
1 cup fat free yogurt (any berry flavor) (100 calories)
2 fistfuls of frozen blueberries (1 cup = less than 85 calories)
6 frozen strawberries (about 5 calories each)
blend until purple.
An antioxidant, vitamin C loaded snack that tastes like dessert for around 300 calories!
I’ve spent decades of my life not eating fruit on a daily basis. I’ve gone weeks at a time without eating any fruit. Not because I don’t like it, because I really like most fruits. It just doesn’t occur to me to eat any. Multiple times per year, I make resolutions to eat just ONE fruit per day. Finally, I included it on my fitness log (see the sidebar to the right) to try and put myself in a situation where I have to be accountable.
I also have a problem getting enough calories, which causes my metabolism to drop. I tend to forget to eat.
Smoothies solve both problems. I’m actually consuming fruit on a daily basis for the first time in my life and making them is easy and takes less than 5 minutes, so eating doesn’t intrude on my day. It doesn’t hurt that I actually crave them now.
I stumbled upon the smoothie idea while trying to get PinkGirl to consume some sort of nourishment in the morning. Trying to get that girl to eat breakfast before school is a chore! A few friends suggested I try smoothies and since PinkGirl loves Planet Smoothie, I thought it might work. It only took about 3 or 4 months to finally hit on a recipe that I actually liked. (for ME, not her. She still wavers about what she likes. I don’t know if I’ll ever find a recipe she really likes.)
But I was having blender issues. If the Vitamix is the BMW of blenders, it seems my little Oster was the VW bug of blenders. It was either forming a little pocket of air at the bottom and doing nothing or it was spinning like crazy and only blending the bottom half of my smoothie. I had to add more and more milk to thin it out so the blender would actually blend the entire smoothie.
I put a new blender on my Christmas list.
Which really irritated me because I own an Oster Kitchen Center with nearly every possible attachment, similar to this one:
It transforms from a blender to a chopper to a slicer to a mixer to a juicer to a . . . it does everything but clean itself. We got one as a wedding present from my husband’s parents and about 10 years ago, it died and I replaced it at our church’s WHALE of a Sale. Since all Oster attachments are interchangeable with every Oster made, I even bought a newer countertop blender to switch to the chopper when I needed it:
So I was not looking forward to having a different blender on my countertop. It was going to mess up my system.
11:00am Done: 1 HIIT mile and 1 yoga class.
But I’m still in my workout clothes…still wearing shoes. If I can just stop myself from taking off my shoes, there’s the possibility of another mile or two. So…what are YOU doing to be a good steward of the body God has blessed YOU with today?
11:15am courtesy subliminal message: m&ms taste like brussel sprouts. you don’t want m&ms. (you’re welcome)
4:00pm
Looks like my van’s getting a new transmission for Christmas. Second one this year. At least this one is free (warranty).
4:15pm right knee. ice. heat. ice. heat. ice. heat. anti-inflammatories. don’t know if I twisted it in yoga or stressed it jogging. I didn’t move it for an hour this afternoon and it started to stiffen up. Gotta MOVE it! FavoriteHusband…will you please fix my bike?
9:00pm
I narrowed it down. It was the half bow pose in yoga today. NEVER doing that again. more ice. more heat. more anti-inflammatories. epson salt bath. aspercreme.
10:45pm FirstHusband: “Sit down. I don’t want you walking around. You’re limping.” Me: “I’m not limping. I’m just walking without bending my knee.” FirstHusband: “How is that different from limping?” Me: “It doesn’t hurt to walk if I don’t bend my knee.” FirstHusband: “Have you ever seen Chester on Gunsmoke?” Me: “Yeh. so?” FirstHusband: “If you don’t sit down I’m going to start calling you Chester.”
What I wanted to do: “Sit here curled up on the couch in front of the Christmas tree with a blanket, coffee and a book, listening to my December rehearsal CD.”
What I did instead: “Walked/Jog one HITT mile before going to BodyInUnity yoga.”
Because healthy doesn’t just happen.
I want to be a good steward of this body God has blessed me with!
And I want to be stronger in the long run, more than I want to be comfortable in the moment.
(Some of you know I’m writing a book. Most recently I’ve been focused on accountability. Don’t know how much will make it through final edits, but today, this is what came out of my memory and my fingertips. Note: (1) This was many YEARS ago. (2) I do NOT really talk to myself like this. That would be crazy.)
I have a collection of coffee mugs that completely fills the kitchen cabinet I’ve designated as the “coffee mug cabinet.” So far, when I get a new mug, I’ve been successful in getting rid of an old one so the coffee mug cabinet stays full, but doesn’t overflow into another one.
I also have a collection of CHRISTMAS coffee mugs that completely fills the same cabinet.
You see my problem.
When I first started collecting coffee mugs, I didn’t pay attention to how much space they took up. I saw a coffee mug I liked and I bought it. Eventually I got to the point where all the mugs didn’t fit into the space, so I started packing up the Christmas mugs and storing them in the attic, only taking them down during the month of December.
In December, my cabinet overflowed.
Then a few years ago, I had a long overdue epiphany. When I UNpacked the Christmas mugs, I PACKED the everyday mugs in the same box and instead of putting an empty mug box back into the attic for the month of December, I put a full mug box into the attic.
There’s a lesson here. Just in time for the chaos of the Christmas season.
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it until I’m dead:
You CAN have it all, you just can’t have it all AT THE SAME TIME.
Choose.
Choose on PURPOSE.
Everyone knows someone who’s schedule is overloaded. Someone who has said “yes” to too many things. Someone who tries to do so many things, they do none of them well. Someone who is a job hog. You may even BE one of those people.
I used to be one of those people, until I had a long, honest, humbling talk with myself:
FedUpMe: “What is your problem? WHY do you keep doing this?
MartyrMe: “what?”
FedUpMe: “WHY do you keep saying yes to everything?”
MartyrMe: “Well, they asked me. They NEED me.”
FedUpMe: “They need you. They need you? Are you sure you don’t need them to need you?”
MartyrMe: “Of course not! I’m doing all this out of the goodness of my heart. Because I’m a good person and I want to help.”
FedUpMe: “and you get nothing out of it.”
MartyrMe: “NO! Most of the time people don’t even appreciate all I do for them.”
FedUpMe: “Of course they don’t. Nobody appreciates a half-%&# job.”
MartyrMe: “I do NOT do a half-%&# job!!! I work my butt off! Look at my schedule! I don’t have ANY time for myself! EVERYthing I do is for other people. I don’t even have time to work out! I run on coffee!”
FedUpMe: “This is me you’re talking to.”
MartyrMe: “But…”
FedUpMe: “Save it. You’re not selling that load here. Look at everything you do. You don’t get anything out of it personally? How many of these things you’ve committed to come with lots of people telling you how great you are? How many times do you tell people about all the stuff you do so they’ll tell you how great you are? (mocking voice) ‘Oh, I just don’t know how you do it all!'”
MartyrMe: “I can’t just quit. There’s nobody else to do it.”
FedUpMe: “Are you really that arrogant?”
MartyrMe: “If I didn’t do it, it wouldn’t get done.”
FedUpMe: “Are you sure about that? Are you SURE that you’re not hogging a job someone else wants? A job someone is just WAITING for you to give up so they can have a shot at it? A job you really aren’t suited for? Are you afraid someone else might do it better? Because I’ll tell you now, they probably could. Because you do a half-%&# job.”
MartyrMe: “shut up. I do NOT do a half-%&# job. I’m doing my best.”
FedUpMe: “You did not just say that. (pregnant pause) What is your favorite Churchill quote?”
MartyrMe: “shutup.”
FedUpMe: “It’s not enough that we do our best; sometimes we have to do what’s required.”
silence. brooding. arrogant brooding.
MartyrMe: “I never liked you.”
FedUpMe: “There are a lot of people who don’t like me. And yet I’m still breathing.”
MartyrMe: “You’ve got issues. and you’re bossy.”
FedUpMe: “duh. I’m YOU.”
MartyrMe: “I can’t just quit. I’m already committed.”
FedUpMe: “Yeh, well, you’re gonna be committed if you don’t find some balance in your life. Look. Start by figuring out two things:
First, what’s important to you? What are your goals in life? Second, what are you good at? What talents has God blessed you with and which ones are you actively developing?
Be brutally honest with yourself, but more importantly, ask other people for feedback and give them permission to tell you the truth. Then you’ll know what to let go of, what to keep in your life and what you need to improve on. If you want to do something and you aren’t very good at it, then GET good at it. Learn. Practice. And don’t forget. There are seasons for things. Just because you want to do something, doesn’t mean you have to do it NOW. You don’t have to do everything at the same time. You CAN’T do everything at the same time. Not well. Rotate your commitments.
” today. LOVE these kids. 
to switch to the chopper when I needed it:
is also on its way, so we’ll see which one works better.
